Step into my time machine, week eleven

This week, we have 11 debuts in the hot hundred (but only 2 I remember), a whopping 6 in the top 40, and 3 new top tens. Also, all the usual fun and a new feature! Let's get started.

Out of eleven debuts, including one by the Jackson 5, the two I actually remember are the awesome live Show Me The Way from Frampton Comes Alive at 94, and the nifty Johnny Rivers cover of Help Me Rhonda at 85. Our next stops are the week's big movers, with James Taylor making the big jump for the second straight week with How Sweet It Is going up 25 to 43. Last week's "almost but not quite" I'll Play For You by Seals and Crofts, plummets 42 spots to 77 for the biggest drop.

The top 40 is joined by 6 songs. Aerosmith climbs its way in at 40, up 6 spots (a movement shared by four out of the six) with Sweet Emotion; Freddy Fender breaks the surface at 39 with Wasted Days and Wasted Nights; the Rolling Stones climb in with a terrible song that I listened to when it debuted and thought it was not worth mentioning. But here it is at 38, the appropriately named I Don't Know Why. Michael Jackson precedes his brothers into the 40 at 36 (up 7) with a song that was catchy but apparently (to me) not very memorable, Just A Little Bit Of You. Same comment for the Commodores with Slippery When Wet, which was their second chart hit and first to crack the top twenty, at 35. Finally, a song I mentioned a couple weeks back when it first hit the hot 100, Tony Orlando and Dawn's Morning Beautiful, jumps 12 to land in the 40 at 30.

This week's almost but not quite is Hey You by Bachman-Turner-Overdrive. It peaked at 16 last week and now slips to 23. The tidbit on this one is that at the time reports said that it was directed by Randy Bachman at former Guess Who bandmate Burton Cummings (You realize now/You should have tried now, /oooh/The music's gone now/You lost it somehow). just like Silly Love Songs was McCartney's answer to John Lennon's opinion of his songwriting. Boys, play nice!

Three go into the top ten, three drop out. Falling to 13 is Major Harris' Love Won't Let Me Wait; at 17, Jessie Coulter's I'm Not Lisa; and at 24 Linda Ronstadt's former top dog When Will I Be Loved.

This week's look at the tops of other decades takes us into the "4's". 1994 this week saw Ace of Base on top with Don't Turn Around in pop, while the modern rock chart was topped by Toad The Wet Sprocket with Fall Down, a very good tune reminiscent of the Eagles. 1984 saw the start of Prince's 4 week run with When Doves Cry; 1974 was the Hues Corporation's Rock The Boat; the incomparable Frankie Valli (whom we'll see in a few minutes) and the Four Seasons were on top this week in 1964 with Rag Doll; and in 1954, the top song this week was a sweet little number, Little Things Mean A Lot. It was recorded by Kitty Kallen, who'd had ten top tens from 1943-5 with Jimmy Dorsey's and Harry James' bands, including Wayne Newton's later signature Besame Mucho. But at the top of her fame,( which was enough that she has three imposters, one of which died and everyone thought it was her) she lost her voice for an extended period and was just starting to come back nine years later when she had this, the biggest hit of her career.

The top ten leads off with a medley by Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Way We Were/Try To Remember, which featured a lot of spoken lyrics. They moved up 1 to get there. Up 3 to #9 is ,despite "official" billing on other songs, the first truly solo Frankie Valli single ever released, Swearin' To God. Leaping six to take home the number 8 spot is 10cc with the heavily overdubbed I'm Not In Love. Michael Murphy drops 4 to 7th with Wildfire; Olivia Newton-John's Please Mister Please climbs 2 to number 6. Magic climbs 1 to # 5 for Pilot...

We interrupt for yet another new feature. Starting this week, I'll count down the top100 of my humongous 1226-song list of my favorite songs of the seventies, 5 at a time. Numbers 100 and 99 are both by Canadian acts, both hit 8 on the billboard charts and 1 on the Canadian, and while one followed a Charlie Pride song on that chart at 1, the other preceded a Charlie Pride song. (wow, huh?) 100 is the Stampeders' Sweet City Woman, 99 is Anne Murray with Snowbird. We jump to 1978 for the number 98 song, Boston's Don't Look Back; KC and the Sunshine Band's Keep It Coming Love is 97, and Dream Weaver (inspired when Gary Wright got some religious literature from George Harrison) is the 96th best song for me. For me, these songs bring back the almost interminable (it seemed )wait for Boston's second album; hearing KC and the guys on the Midnight Special; and the long hot summer when Dream Weaver came out. Now, on with the countdown.

Soaring six notches to number 4 are the Eagles with One Of These Nights; the Captain and Tenille drop out of the top spot to 3 with Love Will Keep Us Together. But it's airplay was such that on Billboard's charts it would hit number 1 a week before and stay there a week later, for a four week run. Van McCoy and his Soul City Symphony moves up 2 to 2 with The Hustle; less than a year later, he would be dead of a heart attack. And the new top dog for this week in 1975, McCartney and Wings with Listen To What The Man Says from the album Venus and Mars. That's it for this week's trip.